(your) body is a porous language

     (our) embodied connections

April 11 - May 31, 2026
Free & Open to the public
Saturdays & Sundays 1:00 - 5:00 pm
& by appointment

Opening Reception
Saturday, April 11, 4:00 - 6:00 pm

Curated by poet, performance artist, and Beacon resident Edwin Torres, the exhibition will feature work by:

Elizabeth Castagna
Todd Colby
Matthew Friday
Renee Gladman
Charmaine Lee & Gryphon Rue
Shanzhai Lyric
Erika Mahr
Tamalyn Miller
Gabriela Salazar
Sasha Stiles
Edwin Torres
Yara Travieso
Cecilia Vicuña
Millicent Young
Zina Zinchenko 

(your) body is a porous language : (our) embodied connections is an exhibition seeking transformative ways of relating through poetic structures. Works across and between disciplines traverse the permeable territory between bodies, emotions, words, and dimensions of physical architecture, the page, and virtual spaces. What curator Edwin Torres refers to as “language-making,” in the form of installation, sculpture, painting, drawing, digital media, movement, writing, poetry, fashion design, and sound art, simultaneously delineates and dissolves boundaries between mind, body, and environment.

Torres adds, "Our bodies are liquid vibrational forces that mirror the patterns of our human porosity, rewriting our connections with every move and utterance we choose. The transformative process of poetry's sense-shifting is a navigation between mind and body that art-making creates openings for. How we adapt to immediacy informs the architecture of our portals, embodying a poem’s dimension — to speak while listening. Across the many voices and forms gathered, this exhibit proposes how language-making can shape our willingness to interrogate a continually evolving world.”

Gallery Director Alison McNulty shared, “We are thrilled to welcome accomplished multidisciplinary poet, Edwin Torres, back to Ann Street Gallery as guest curator of our spring group exhibition. The curatorial role is an organic extension of Torres’ work, highlighting his brilliance as a poet and performer, building on his long-standing interest and engagement with visual and performing art and artists, and expanding his creative and thematic interests around space, language, materiality, sound, and the body into the 3D space of the gallery. We enthusiastically invite the public back to the gallery this spring to experience Torres’ ambitious, sensual, and intellectually rigorous group exhibition, along with an exciting series of programs also organized by Torres, including a poetry performance, a workshop, and an artist talk.”

Special Events & Performances at Ann Street Gallery:

(your) body is a poetry reading
Sunday, April 26, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Carolina Abreu, Brenda Coultas & Edwin Torres (poetry),
K.J. Holmes (dance), Sean G. Meehan (snare)

(your) body is a workshop
Details TBA

(your) body is an art talk
Saturday, May 23, 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Mónica de la Torre and Renee Gladman
Moderated by Edwin Torres

Ann Street Gallery is thrilled to announce Edwin Torres as the guest curator of our spring group exhibition, (your) body is a porous language : (our) embodied connections, opening with a reception on Saturday, April 11 from 4:00 - 6:00 pm and running through May 31.

Edwin Torres is a Nuyorican poet and performance artist known for his innovative, multi-sensory approach to poetry, seeking our possibilities for connection by investigating our entry into language. A multidisciplinary poet rooted in the languages of sight and sound, Torres is interested in the physicality of language, as a permeable territory traveled between us, infinite with mistake and wonder. His performances blend vocal improvisation, physical movement, and audience interaction. Born in the Bronx, Torres is an adjunct poetry professor at Columbia University currently living in Beacon, NY.

Torres has previously performed at Safe Harbors of the Hudson’s Literary Festival and was commissioned to write and perform new work for Ann Street Gallery’s inaugural Artist Researcher in Residence program, From the Ground UP. His piece for the exhibit, “Burial Chant: did you in your life leave any wonder behind”, was recorded and presented in the gallery, and available in the online project archive.

Torres is the author of multiple books of poetry, including “Quanundrum: i will be your many angled thing” (Roof Books, awarded an American Book Award), “Xoeteox: the infinite word object” (Wave Books), “Ameriscopia” (University of Arizona), and  “Feel Recordings In The Evershift” (Wave Books) forthcoming this fall. He is also the editor of “The Body In Language: An Anthology” (Counterpath Press). He has been awarded fellowships from NYSCA, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Arts Mid-Hudson and NYFA among others. He has presented his bodylingo poetics worldwide and locally at the Soon Is Now climate festival among others. His work has been widely anthologized in volumes including “New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archives,” “Poets In The 21st Century: Poetics of Social Engagement,” and “Aloud: Voices from The Nuyorican Poets Cafe”.

Torres’ visual poetics have been exhibited at Exit Art, White Box, EFA Gallery in NYC, and a graphic retrospective “Poesís: The Visual Language of Edwin Torres” at the Center for Book and Paper Arts in Chicago. His sound recordings include “Sublingual Infinities”, with sound artist Stephen Vitiello, and his own CD “Holy Kid”, which was included in the Whitney Museum’s exhibit “The Last American Century Pt. II”. Torres has collaborated with artists across a variety of media and has taught process-oriented creativity workshops across the nation titled, “Brainlingo: Writing The Voice Of The Body”.

More about Torres can be found on Instagram at @Brainlingo_ 

We are pleased to announce that applications are open for our fifth annual Ann Street Gallery Emerging Artist Fellowship. The program provides a supportive platform for early-career or under-recognized artists in Newburgh and the Hudson Valley, with a focus on artists from historically marginalized communities. The fellowship provides three artists with opportunities for mentorship, networking, and professional development as well as a $2000 USD materials and supplies allowance, a shared studio space on site, a cohort exhibition in the gallery during Newburgh Open Studios, opportunities to engage with the public, and individual guidance toward identifying goals and further opportunities.

Learn more about the program and application process HERE.